MiniComi + International Autonomous Robot Racing Competition 2011 @ UBC

Total nerdfest at UBC yesterday: MiniComi (artist market & cosplay, similar to Japan’s Comiket) & International Autonomous Robot Racing Competition at the same location. I had to be there! It was a lot of fun.

Team Waterloo: By far, the best team of the event.

Seems like Domino’s Pizza was a sponsor.

Some androids showed up.

A stormtrooper as well.

Meanwhile at the MiniComi…

Nice ears!

Holding Buck Rogers’ ray gun.

Red Power Ranger.

Artists at MiniComi.

Lots of different hair color that day. Darth Vader was enjoying himself too.

Why?

Drag race: UBC vs Waterloo

Emergency Surgery.

Robot watchers. Kinect was used by a couple of teams.

Cosplayers.

Concentrating. MARRT is the McMaster Autonomous Robot Race Team.

Robot race.

Cosplayer in Black.

Cosplayers watching the race.

Texting.

Resting at the end of the day.

Microdrones in Kenya

 

[From IEEE Spectrum]

Acoustic Cartography of Vancouver: Urban Sound Ecology

Urban Sound Ecology is a research initiative dedicated to exploring, examining, and understanding the sonic spaces of Canadian cities. At once an archive, database, and creative remapping of the city, Urban Sound Ecology is free to join and free to use. We invite interested participants to construct lines of inquiry into the aural landscape of Canadian cities by producing sequences of geo-referenced ‘soundwalks. (more)

[From The Georgia Straight]

Seagull Drone

 

SmartBird is an ultralight but powerful flight model with excellent aerodynamic qualities and extreme agility. With SmartBird, Festo has succeeded in deciphering the flight of birds – one of the oldest dreams of humankind.

[From Make]

Sunday Walk

Pictures of Vancouver taken last Sunday. The complete set is on Flickr.

Celticfest on Granville Street

A popular leprechaun.

Granville Bridge & Granville Island

Granville Island from the bridge.

On Granville Island.

Kitsilano

Above, beach near Vanier Park.

Kitsilano Beach.

Drakkar near Vanier Park.

False Creek

Aquabus.

“I’ll miss this when it’s gone” graffiti.

Science World.

Giant sparrow in Olympic Village.

BC Place.

“The moon circles the earth and the ocean responds with the rhythm of the tides.”

English Bay

Playing the guitar alone.

Swimmer.

Sunset

Fringe shoot in Vancouver

Today, I stumbled upon the shooting of a scene of Fringe, on Hornby and Hastings. Above, Walter.

 

Above, the scene before the action starts.

Above, Peter and Olivia (I think) in the foreground. Walter in the back.

Above, action and some running.

Above, camera and extras.

Above, NYC taxi from the scene.

Happy new year!

Above, the last sunset of 2010, from West Vancouver.

Vancouver

Some photos of Vancouver I took in the last month or so.

Above, Lions Gate Bridge and Stanley Park from the West Vancouver Seawall.

Above, Cabin Lake on Black Mountain.

Above, Vancouver from Eagle Bluffs.

Above, Downtown Vancouver from Stanley Park.

Above, migrating birds.

Above, fisherman on the Capilano River.

Above, Bowen Island from Lighthouse Park in West Vancouver.

Canada

I have been in Canada for the last few weeks. I stopped in Halifax and Toronto for a while but I am currently in Vancouver, where I will be staying for a very long time.

As always, I have taken many photos. Some are shown below.

Above, Halifax from the Citadel.

Above, the CN Tower in Toronto.

Above, Deep Cove in North Vancouver. The city can be seen in the background.

Above, a family of deer in the forest near Grouse Mountain. I haven’t seen bears yet though. Hopefully it will stay that way…

Esja / Þverfellshorn peak

On my last day in Iceland, I went up the Esja, which is the mountain range north of Reykjavik. There are various trails there with a great view on the city. It is possible to get to the start of one of the trails using only Strætó buses:

• From the Hlemmur terminal, take the 15 to Háholt in Mosfellsbaer (the stop is in front of a KFC).
• From Háholt, take the 57 towards Akranes: Tell the driver you want to go to the Esja. He will drop you where you need to go.

The trail there goes to a peak called Þverfellshorn. Most of it is a steep but regular walk. The last part to get to the top is more challenging.

When I got there, at the edge of the mountain, the view on Reykjavik was great:

Further from the edge, there was a lot of fog and the landscape looked really strange:

I took many photos. Some of them are shown after the jump.